Pre season

I know it is August almost and it has been hot as heck but it is inevitable Bow season is coming on strong!!! So what is a man to do during this time frame? Why scout of course, drive around your hunting spots while the beans are fresh and green giving them a good glassing with your optics. Take a walk down your hunting lanes with the weed eater and blade and cut some branches out of the way looking for some sign. Deer will be rubbing velvet before you know it, are you going to be able to use the same tree this year? It is gunpowder dry right now so at  any water source you will be able to check track and see if the Big boy is still around. And let us not forget that right now is the perfect time to set up that stand in the yard and throw some arrows now while you have light in the evenings,not the day or two before the season gets going!!! Check out your stand and make sure all the nuts and bolts are in place and working right, swap out those wimpy nuts and bolts with something you can get your hands on this winter with gloves on, and do not forget to place a couple of extras in a sack and duct tape the sack to your stand, nothing like dropping something in the dark and be up that creek with no paddle. Hang your trail cam now and get some pictures of your trophy and trespassers keep in mind the DNR is there to help you not harass you so be legal, and if you are having problems let them know now. Today I am calling the De. DNR as I have a couple of questions I can't find answers to. Like this one with the state wildlife area signs, "Special Rules Apply" well I cannot find the special rules in my booklet I get with my license so I will find out early on and not at the end of my hunt when the DNR officer and I are having that discussion along side the truck. Being a disabled veteran and a game land hunter is it permissible to use an ATV or other mechanical device for me to gain access to public hunting areas, I mean I am not wheel chair bound by any means but a hike of a couple miles and dragging deer takes it's toll on a brother for sure! So drop off your bow and get it tuned up, practice, scout and check your equipment before you hit the woods, Enjoy and share your hunting stories with us...that way I don;t feel so bad when I see other people miss trophies too!!!

American Hunter

Just got my new American Hunter mag. and you all know that I love my guns and belong to the NRA. One of the first things I read every issue is the "Armed Citizen" portion. People whose lives have been saved by the defense of their property and life. Well this one just takes the cake, I am not sure how to get the article posted  direct but I will give you the readers digest version if you will. Chicago; which Mayor Richard J Daley rules like his personal kingdom, outlawed guns for it's citizens. This was challenged and found unconstitutional (second amendment) Immediately he and his flying monkeys changed the rules of the game which says you can have it not just outside or even in your garage, so on to this story of The Armed Citizen".
An 80 year old Korean war vet, his wife and great grandson were sleeping when a convicted felon,  smashed the window in the veterans basement, the vet retrieved his handgun and the felon proceeded to fire two shots (gun laws do NOT apply to convicted felons) at the veteran. The vet returned fire with one shot killing the felon. Police refused to press charges, even though the man violated the gun ban. Now are the anti gun people going to push this issue? How will we protect our homes with out the necessary tools to do so?
Seems that the good Mayor had an answer for a reporter who dared ask the question "Given the number of shootings in the city is not the handgun ban ineffective"? The Mayor picked up an SKS with the bayonet extended and threatened the reporter with "If I put this up your butt you will find how ineffective it is, If I put a round up your...." I can almost tell you  what would happen if a citizen picked up a rifle and made the same statement to a government official. (WWW.Chicagoreader.com) See those of us who are gun owners know that we do not joke or kid around with statements like that, only the misinformed and ignorant do that.
of course I did not mention the death of one of Chicago's finest, an off duty officer, murdered by thugs. 30 year old Thomas Wortham, murdered in front of his family's home by four gang-banges looking to steal his new  Motorcycle. Now his father who is a retired Chicago police officer and allowed to posses such a wepon legally, shot and killed one and wounded another. His son had just finished his second tour in Iraq and when shot was dragged under the vehicle, One of the thugs Facebook page bragged of having no fear of pulling the trigger, so let's ask our self What Would You do in this situation. Would you defend your childeren and their children or would you ask the thug to please put down his wepon. Just saying

Old Boats and models

I took a trip down to Deal island today and saw a Skipjack in excellent shape, and some old boats that I took photos of for my art work and  boat modeling. This is a photo of the Skipjack "Kathryn". she is not a working boat but a pleasure boat for sailing on the Chesapeake bay and Tangier sound. Take a look at her and then one that is being restored behind her, only 5 working Skipjacks on the bay at this time according to the Captain of this boat.

Airborne

I have been talking about skydiving here this week and that Wikipedia site is killer for info, but face it anyone can go there and read what I have been posting, but lets talk Airborne, Americas 101st. Now there are a few people who in the military were required to jump out of planes, and when they got out did not continue on with the sport so to speak. Then there are those who never had to jump out but do so for giggles, and then there are those whose sole job was to jump out of planes to execute their duties, behind enemy lines, These guys are carrying everything with them, and jumping out of aircraft at very low altitudes, in fact some of em have to boosted onto the aircraft because they carry so much stuff. Navy SEALS and RANGERS all Special forces train in parachute insertion, and when you are sneaking up on someone you do not have a bunch of people backing you up, so you carry it with you. Rifle, supplies, ammo, food everything heck I have heard from some SEAL friends of mine that they even drop inflatable boats  motors, and small vehicles, I saw where they dropped a tank one time, but that was not one of those quite in out kinda things.
Now the 101st has been around for some time WW2 Normandy, the bulge were all airborne big times, and they are highly decorated for their efforts. In fact they are still around today and being deployed in the Vacation  destination known as Afghanistan and Iraq. Let us not forget Vietnam or "The Hump on the 8th of November" my cousin was involved in that one, Not a 101 battle but one of the 173rd Airborne. I bet parachuting for fun is just not that exciting now. So we use parachutes for fun and we use them for war, personally I am glad to see the people jumping over at the airfield, getting their thrill on instead of shooting and banging!

Boat Races in Cambridge

I like boats, I like to go fast in boats (not cars) and today I have the opp. to go see some boats go fast and visit with some old friends of mine. When I lived in Florida they had a marine  place for boating events like races and stuff. It was built like a ball park a huge concrete structure built in seats concessions bathrooms and shade. So one day the wife and I along with a friend made our way to West Palm beach to go to an inflatable boat race. Now these are not big engine screaming machines but inflatable boats with horsepower racing around a water course. Now don't laugh these are not you zodiac tender boats, well some were, but duel engine beast that were inflatable! I have to admit it was not quite as exciting as watching hydroplanes or drag boats but still pretty exciting if not different. I am thinking I might try and get over there today or tomorrow check out the boats and watch some of the action. Of course with the temps hitting double or even triple digits my visit may be short if not sweet!

SKYDIVING or who wears a wing suit

Today I am going to talk about a wing suit as a form of skydiving. The wing suit is like a parachute that you can wear and it enables you to fly like a glider. You tube has got some killer video of these things and I don't mind telling you that this looks like it could get fun! Now these are nothing new in fact they have been around for some time as early as 1930! Now like any new technology there is a learning curve and according to Wikipedia 72 0f the 75 people testing these thing died between 1930 and 1961. By the mid 90's a French man Patrick Gayardon had a suit that was working out pretty well, and he was using it in BASE jumping (another post) and photography of skydivers. Of course ol Patrick crashed and burned but not because of the suit but from a accident from a rigging error, in Hawaii 1998. That did not stop em though and today the suit is manufactured by a co. called Phoenix Fly. I can't help but think of a flying squirrel every time I see these things. Stop on by you tube and check out these things, I would never try this of course but apparently there are a bunch of people who would, what about you would you even consider something like this?

Working for a living or not.

I am looking for some form of ATV/off road type of vehicle for the upcoming hunting season, okay I am getting lazy not old! So yesterday I stop in the Suzuki place in Salisbury to look around. I like the side by side four wheeled machines but they are just way to big to get into the forest without cutting a road, and they had some nice looking ones on display. I like the four wheeler machines, powered nicely with four wheel drive, and lots of stuff to hang of the back of em, and stable of course. The Rokon is the best of the lot but two wheels and me in the woods just does not go together. But back to the reason for the post. I go shopping in my clean clothes with a clean shirt and nice shoes, not a bum and enter into the store to have a look and get some info. I spent a good 15 min in there looking at a variety of machines, and no one asked me if I needed help! Not one person stopped me and asked me what I was looking for, or if they could help. Now there were people standing around talking, couple of parts guys, one person was hanging a poster about a upcoming promotion by Monster drinks I think it was, another at a desk on the computer. Not one person came forward to help a customer, 5 people eating up payroll. I even wandered around for a few min. just trying to get someone to come forth. Bad thing was they had a machine there that I was very interested in, just the right size for my needs.
Not getting any assistance I walked out the store and went to Harley Davidson of Seaford, to look at Polaris equipment, top of the line equipment but pricey. I was not there 5 min before I had a salesmen talking with me and showing me the machines. The electric side by side was super quiet, the four wheelers nicely displayed and the sales guy on target, not pushy just very helpful, a totally different atmosphere, gave me some info and prices and even took a look at my Chesapeake retriever, very personable guy.  In fact when I am able to pay for the machine I will def. return there as I am sure the service will be just a good.
My next stop was at the bike shop in Seaford to get a bicycle tube and some stuff for riding the bike around the block. Another first class establishment, the people were super nice and very helpful, even gave me a quick lesson on changing my tires along the road side for free, and he had customers in the store. In fact he was able to hold many irons in the fire at one time and made each of us feel like we had his personal attention, def. multi tasking! So what gives with the different stores and the service one can expect? I would suspect that in these times a customer going into a store would get the best service possible, but not so. In fact I am seeing just the opposite to be true, is it because unemployment is seen as a job by some with benefits, do people just not care about you the customer or their place of employment. I will tell you the two places I did get service it was first class and they will get my business again I am sure. Will anything change because of this post? I doubt it, the people I dealt with more than likely do not even know Delmarva Sportsmen exist, and this post is not going to make much difference. However if you are reading this you know we exist and may be just maybe you will  visit the two places that did deliver. Good hunting stay cool.

Clamming and crabbing

You know there was a time when you could go out and catch some crabs rake up some clams and have a shore feast, but now you have to have a license for everything and cash to launch the boat. But this week  am going to slip out and get me a few for the pot. I like clams chopped up with some garlic and olive oil over some spaghetti. And, to shuck em and make like a clams casino with em, my wife and I can  finish off a couple dozen of those with some sweet corn and tomatoes For a Eastern shore dinner. I like the little ones for steaming and eating right out of the shell with a little hot sauce and vinegar, or a fritter with some hush puppies. So maybe I will go get me some one day this week in the evening when the sun goes down in the afternoon, try and get a fish, sit on the beach and fry up something...but you know I don't like fish!

Skydiving some background

Today I am going to put out some info on skydiving hopefully someone reading will have some input on this info for the benefit of our readers. Skydiving is defined in Wikipedia as: Performing acrobatics during free fall, prior to deploying a parachute. Well that explains it I can not do acrobatics on the earth so strapped to someone else is out of the question, but seriously folks.
Andre Jacques Garnerian made a jump from a hot air balloon in 1797, man I wish I could have seen that one go down. No doubt the man was brave but I can almost rest assured that a change of underwear was also required. But in reality that Italian master Leonardo Da (man) was the first to really take a look at this. A model of his device was tested and determined to be a working piece of equipment. I guess getting a plane to take him up was the real problem, and what makes a man think of such things like a parachute back then. air travel was not happening, balloon travel not real popular.
Now on any given weekend you can find people jumping from any number of aircraft, my friend had a person jump from his ultralight, just kinda fell out of the seat. Over here at Laurel they have a big plane that hauls em up, and it is like clock work you hear the plane climbing, quiet, then the engine comes back up and the plane is in a spiral returning to the field. If you have optics you can see the people falling after they open up their chute soaring around like birds. I have noticed that some of them can stay airborne for quite some time depending on the style of chute they are using. Maybe this weekend I can get over and talk with some of em and find out a little more info on the equipment and plane. By the way anyone want to jump out of the plane?

Sky Diving

Having been a pilot in command of small planes you are always on the lookout for someplace to crash I mean land the plane if something goes wrong. Today there are any number of devices that will help you get down safely if the plane decides to experience rapid deacceleration syndrome with the earth. One is a parachute that lets the plane down slowly or reduces the impact some, another is a parachute for you to jump out of the plane with! Now so  long as the prop is turning, and air is flowing over the wings you can get some lift, and I am going to have to think about leaving the plane and taking my chances. That leads me into this post of people who willingly jump from perfectly good aircraft or Skydiving. There was a time when I thought that something like that would be a rush, this coming from a man who hates a ladder remember, and my wife spent good money for a gift certificate for me. I lost my nerve and the money which if you know me really burns me up! But I see the plane every weekend and people coming out of it like bees, chutes opening and them soaring around in their chutes like birds. And I am wondering just what takes place, understand I am still not going to leave a good aircraft, but what is it that goes on that makes this sport so appealing? I think I might do a series of post on this sport just to see what the hoopla is about, talk with some of em, check out the plane watch em jump out and get a real feeling for the sport. What or how does the first time jumper react when faced with the very real possibility of making that big step into the unknown. Heck I got funky walking out on a glass floor 40 stories above Vegas for crying out loud. Now I am going to go to the airport in Laurel De. where they jump from and talk with the people over there. Could be they don't want me doing this and I get shut down, or they embrace the ideal and let me see the whole process from soup to nuts. I am not going to actually jump from any perfectly sound aircraft I assure you but hope to have some really killer pics of people who do. Stick around and we can see what develops, you never can tell!

fishing trip

I went fishing last night with a friend of mine, he took me to his hidden fishing hole and we had a great time. Sun was going down tide was changing and fish were cooperating nicely. No big horse hard heads or 30 inch rock but a good evening out and enough fish to make it fun. I got into a little run of small rock three of em one after another cookie cutter fish perfect for the pan, but hey who can afford the fine! We went out into the sound toward dark and fished the channel coming into Deal Island we caught quite a few small fish outside. All in all it was a nice relaxing trip out, I love to fish the evening time. Got home around 10pm and took a shower to get the fish off me. If there is one thing I love to do it is fish. I sold my fishing boat and kept my duck boat so I would have something to fish from, the big boat was just to much for me alone. Maybe I will slip out and go clamming this week, or catch some crabs.

Getting around and slowing down

You know as a society we are doing more and more to extend our lives and the quality of our lives, which leads me to consider the following. When we were young our bodies were flexible and strong and as you get older aches and pains just seem to stick around more. So we take an aspirin for the pain eat some fish oil tablets and keep on going. Then your knees or shoulders start to hurt so we go and get some surgery and keep on going all these things we do to just keep on going (and working) extend the natural life span of our bodies. Think about it if you lived a hundred years ago, a simple heel blister could kill you if it got infected as did one of Abe Lincolns sons.Two hundred years ago if you were a native American living by hunter /gathering and you lost your teeth from to much buffalo jerky you would check out and die. As hunters and fishermen I have meet guys who are still hitting it in their 80's slower of course but still wing shooting and deer hunting, then others who are slowing down (me). Our industry has introduced us to many things to keep us afield  with ATV's, Argos, any number of feeders to bring game to us, and gadgets to allow us to keep at it, but when do you call it quits and join the ranks of those who golf (with a cart of course). Personally for me I have had a knee fixed, both shoulders repaired, gout, and my feet ache, but I am a young 55 who still loves the smell of a damp woods in the morning and the quack of a fat duck, just getting to them is a little more effort than is wise. I am a walker and a hiker I love going to the Appalachian Trail and kicking around for a few days backpacking, or walking four or five miles with my rifle or shotgun on a frosty day, but I find it more and more difficult. My last trip to the C and D canal was not good, flat land walking I had to call for a dust off as my feet kicked my butt, not blisters but feet. I no longer look forward to the 100 yd drag of a deer from the forest preferring to shoot them in the lane so I can drive to em and pick em up. My kids are gone and my hunting partners have quite to play golf or something.Who knows but I still want to keep at it, maybe with my camera, but that makes really thin stew! I thought about some form of ATV, 4 wheelers don't do it for me can't really get them through the woods unless you cut a trail, then everyone and his brother hunts your spot cause it is easy to get to, and public lands are a no cut zone anyhow, Argos are nice and multipurpose I could hunt a lot of marsh with one, but not get in the woods. I was leaning toward a Polaris type of machine but the price tag is like buying a new car and they are big pieces of equipment.  A motorcycle is out of the question I have never owned one and they are real fast on the throttle a disaster if ever there was one, for me anyhow. I saw a tracked machine with a narrow profile and a short wheel base it looked strange like a short bobcat, but went everywhere, however when the operator came over a pile of logs it tipped them on their head, not for me.  I found a machine called a ROKON it is like a motorcycle except it has two wheel drive and a 31 inch wide footprint. It goes nowhere fast but everywhere slowly, it gets all of it's power from gearing. Cannot operate it on the road strictly off road and it comes it at about 210 lbs. Can float it across a river because it has tractor like tires that also double a fuel or water containers, and climbs a 60 degree grade, important here on the shore! Of course there are like 40 accessories you can get for it. A trailer, side car, generator and pump, saddle bags and a tool kit to carry with you. Super simple design and those made in the 70's are still in the field, heck one guy rode one from Alaska to the Amazon on rail right of ways and such. Special forces uses them, and Sheriffs dept's.  for search and rescue, hunters naturally. Of course once you buy something like that you quite walking, hunt deeper, and exercise less even if it takes longer you are still exercising, but not when you are riding. Who knows I might just keep on walking, less hassle all around, do a little more sitting and looking....or maybe I will quite and just paint!

Fruits and Veggies

I love me some fresh fruit and vegetables! I love corn from the garden and I like fresh tomatoes. I love fresh peaches and berries, and even zucchini squash. I made some watermelon rind picked preserves last week and they were killer, maybe make a batch this week and put em up for winter. So today the wife and I decide that we were going to pick blueberries down at Garden of Eden on Nanticoke road toward the Red Roost. Now we have been in a drought and we need rain, like the song says rain is a good thing, right? But this morning it decides to pour about 20 min after we get there kinda cutting us short on our picking time but we did get some berries for eating fresh. I will pick more for the freezer later so I can enjoy them this winter. I love going and getting a handfull of frozen strawberries and eating them on a hot night on the deck out back. Figured I might do up some peaches this year, they are much cheaper by the can at the store but hey what fun is that!

Gun law

So the Supreme court says you have the right to protect yourself and your property,but the city of Chicago says okay but just not outside. This is just what many of us who are NRA members ,sportsmen, and moms and dads are concerned about. "They" will never take your gun, just make it so you cannot use it. Just who the heck are they anyhow? Can only have one operational gun in your home! Cannot go outside with it to defend your life and property. Personally my friends this is all wet, and reeks of the government being afraid of those of us who are able to defend ourselves. For an example in New Orleans when the Hurricane struck, now keep in mind they had 5 days of warnings prior to the hurricane landing, what happened? People became savages, raping and looting, killing each other and the government trying to take away the guns of those who were determined to protect their families and businesses. Now look at the Midwest some terrible storms and flooding this year and much the same type of disaster. But the difference here is that in the Midwest people came together, we saw no reports of people robbing or raping. Now both situations are tragic no doubt but the difference in peoples attitudes and behavior are like night and day. Would you want to protect yourself in New Orleans against thugs who only want to take what you have? Would you want to protect your family from  harm if you were confronted by any type of danger to them. No my friends what you see happening is very scary indeed and unless we the People start to take back those rights that some seem to use as their personal door mat it will only get worse. A new administration , newly elected  officials, all will have the ability to return to us the rights we have been given to us by our founding fathers, but the damage has been done and the seed planted. Keep in mind when you go to the polls don't reelect anyone not even your momma!